Archaeology in Israel:
Galei
Kinneret

In salvage excavations that
were conducted next to the Galei Kinneret
Hotel, in the spring of 2002, finds of considerable
importance were exposed that shed light on
the history of Tiberias from
the time when the city was founded in the
first century CE until
the Crusader
period. The excavation area is next to
the shore of the Kinneret and
for the first time we can reconstruct the
levels of the lake in Tiberias and the shoreline
in ancient periods based on the excavation
findings.

In the Early
Roman period the area lay outside the
city limits. During the excavation a thick
accumulation of pebbles was exposed that
was swept to the shore of the Sea
of Galilee and among them were numerous
pottery sherds. No buildings from this
period were found and it seems that the
sherds were washed to the shoreline from
the nearby city.

Along the fringes of the
excavation a section of a 9 m wide wall was
exposed that was built of finely dressed
ashlars and a core comprising lumps of stone
and hard plaster. The wall is curved and
is part of a large impressive building (diameter
36 m); its shape and the manner of its construction
indicate that this was an important public
building in Roman Tiberias. These are probably
the remains of the city’s stadium,
which is mentioned several times in historical
sources. It was in this stadium that the
residents of Tiberias assembled in order
to meet with Josephus
Flavius, then commander of the revolt
in the Galilee, and it was here that the
Jewish prisoners were brought from the battle
near Migdal where
their fate was to be decided. Twelve hundred
of the elderly and sick were executed and
the rest, 37,000 people, were sold into slavery.
The stadium is mentioned in the Jerusalem
Talmud as a well-known building of the
third century that lay outside the city and
served as an intermediate point for the eruv
of the Sabbath domain
of Bet Ma’on and Tiberias. The stadium
was no longer used by the end of the third
century. It apparently served for some time
as a source of building material for the
adjacent city and its seats were removed.

It was only during the Byzantine
period that the city limits extended
as far as the area that was excavated.
An elongated building enclosed beneath
a vaulted arch was constructed atop the
stadium. It was apparently used as a storehouse.
Well-constructed buildings were erected
parallel to the shoreline; only their eastern
wall was revealed. The erosion on the lower
courses indicates that during periods of
flooding the waters of the Kinneret reached
the structure. A number of columns in secondary
use were set in place outside the building.

The area reached the height
of its prosperity during the Umayyad period.
The Byzantine buildings were renovated and
enlarged. A rectangular building whose eastern
wall is built of adjacent columns was probably
used as a pool that was built in shallow
water near the shore and may have held fish
before they were sold.

In 749 CE a mighty earthquake
struck the country and destroyed many of
its cities, among them Bet
Shean and Susita. Dramatic evidence of
this event was discovered in the excavation.
A geological fault resulting in a vertical
shift of c. 90 cm was caused by the earthquake.
The walls of the buildings were cracked and
sometimes shifted from their locations and
collapsed. In one of the buildings bronze
vessels were found that fell when the building
was destroyed by the earthquake. As a result
of the quake, the level of the Kinneret rose
considerably and flooded the ruins of the
destroyed buildings. In the Fatimid period
industrial installations were constructed
atop the ruinous Umayyad buildings. From
the Crusader period a double pool was exposed
that was treated with grey plaster applied
on top of fragments of “sugar vessels”.